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The 11-year-old, her mother and the baby girl, Zuri Whitehead, were on a couch downstairs when the mother fell asleep at about 3 a.m. Friday, Wickliffe police Chief Randy Ice said at a news conference Monday. The mother was awakened less than an hour later by her daughter, who was holding the badly injured infant. Ice said the 11-year-old took the infant upstairs. When she returned downstairs, the infant was bleeding and her head was badly swollen, he said.

The 11-year-old’s mother immediately called the emergency dispatcher, Ice said. Zuri was flown to a children’s trauma centre in Cleveland, where she died.

The mother of the 11-year-old and Zuri’s mother, Trina Whitehead, have known each other for five or six years but aren’t related, Ice said. Trina Whitehead has three other children and had the girl’s mother keeps Zuri, of Cleveland, overnight to give her a breather.

The Associated Press is not naming the 11-year-old girl or her mother because of her age.

Neither Ice nor a Lake County juvenile court official could recall a murder suspect being that young. Court administrator Chris Simon said 13 is the youngest age that children are typically detained at the county’s juvenile detention centre, where the girl is being held. Juvenile Judge Karen Lawson entered a not guilty plea for the girl at a detention hearing Monday and ordered that she undergo a competency hearing.

FBI crime statistics show there were 20 children age 12 and under in the U.S. who were accused of murder during 2012, the most recent year for which statistics were available.

The girl cannot be tried as an adult. A child must be at least 14 years old in Ohio to be turned over to adult court. An 11-year-old can, however, be sentenced to a state Department of Youth Services facility until age 21.

The girl did not show any remorse, Ice said. “I’m not sure she appreciated the gravity of what she did,” he said.

The middle school the girl attends had called police about the girl on one occasion for a non-violent incident, Ice said. The girl and her mother have been questioned.

The girl did not show any remorse, Ice said. “I’m not sure she appreciated the gravity of what she did,” he said.

The girl’s public defender declined to comment on Monday.

Ice is considering counselling for the officers who responded to the scene.

“We’re having a hard time getting (our) heads around this,” he said. “You don’t see stuff like this.”

CLEVELAND — With several swipes from the arm of an excavator and a smattering of applause from spectators, demolition began Wednesday morning on the Cleveland house where three women were held captive and raped over a decade.

It took about an hour and 20 minutes to tear down the house, which occurred as part of the plea deal that spared Ariel Castro a possible death sentence. He was sentenced last week to life in prison plus 1,000 years.

But the question remains: How could the crimes go unnoticed so long in Castro’s blue-collar neighbourhood?

One of the women imprisoned there, Michelle Knight, showed up early Wednesday before the work began. She made a brief statement and released balloons into the air.

Marvin Fong / The Plain Dealer / AP Michelle Knight arrives at Ariel Castro's home in Cleveland, Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2013. Castro held Knight, Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus, captive for nearly a decade at this property. The house was torn down as part of a deal that spared Ariel Castro a possible death sentence. He was sentenced last week to life in prison plus 1,000 years.

“Dear Lord, give the missing people strength and power to know that they are loved,” said Knight, who had rosary beads hanging from her neck.

“We hear their cry, they are never forgotten in my heart. They are caterpillars, waiting to turn into a butterfly. They are never forgotten, they are loved.”

Knight said the array of balloons “represents all the millions of children that were never found and the ones that passed away that were never heard.”

During Castro’s sentencing hearing last week, Knight described the home as “hell.”

“You took 11 years of my life away and I have got it back,” she said Michelle Knight. “I spent 11 years in hell. Now your hell is just beginning.”

There was applause as a relative of one victim represented the three and took the controls of the wrecking crane for the first smash into the top of the front wall. Later, as the house debris disappeared into the basement, church bells rang.

Angelo Merendino / Getty Images Summit County Prosecutor Tim McGinty addresses press on August 7, 2013 in front of the home of Ariel Castro in Cleveland, Ohio. Castro was found guilty of abducting three young women between 2002 and 2004 and sentenced to life in prison with no parole plus one thousand years. Today The State of Ohio demolished Castro's home.

Katie Mae Brown, 62, a former resident of the street, said tearing the house down was important for the neighbourhood to show “that monster — that he is behind bars and that he’s never going to get out.”

Cuyahoga County prosecutor Tim McGinty said the two houses to the left of Castro’s are also being torn down and will be developed into a park or whatever the residents decide.

Prosecutors say Castro cried when he signed over the house deed and mentioned his “many happy memories” there with the women. They highlighted the teary-eyed scene to illustrate Castro’s “distorted and twisted” personality.

On Wednesday, McGinty called him “one evil guy.”

Tony Dejak / AP An FBI agent watches as the house where three women were held captive and raped for more than a decade is being demolished Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2013, in Cleveland. Authorities want to make sure the rubble isn't sold online as "murderabilia," though no one died there. The house was torn down as part of a deal that spared Ariel Castro a possible death sentence. He was sentenced last week to life in prison plus 1,000 years. Castro apologized but blamed his addiction to pornography.

Family members, including his son, Anthony Castro, went to the house Monday and picked up personal items including old photographs, guitars and bicycles.

Relatives said the house razing was part of the healing process for them. “It’s sad and hard but it is necessary for us to move on,” Anthony Castro told WKYC-TV.

The three women disappeared separately between 2002 and 2004, when they were 14, 16 and 20 years old. Each had accepted a ride from Castro.

They escaped May 6, when Amanda Berry, now 27, broke part of a door and yelled to neighbours for help. Castro was arrested that evening.

Tony Dejak / AP Debris is loaded onto a truck at a house where three women were held captive and raped for more than a decade, Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2013, in Cleveland. Authorities want to make sure the rubble isn't sold online as "murderabilia," though no one died there. The house was torn down as part of a deal that spared Ariel Castro a possible death sentence. He was sentenced last week to life in prison plus 1,000 years. He apologized but blamed his addiction to pornography.

At Castro’s sentencing, prosecutors displayed photos that provided a first glimpse inside the rooms where the women lived.

Stuffed animals lined the bed and crayon drawings were taped to the wall where Berry lived with her young daughter, who was fathered by Castro. One of the drawings on a shelf said, “Happy Birthday.”

The window was boarded shut and door knobs had been removed and replaced with multiple locks. Saucer-size holes in inside doors were meant for circulation.

Another room, shared by Knight and Gina DeJesus, had a portable toilet, a clock radio and several chains.

The house, which quickly became a drive-by attraction after the women fled to freedom, was fenced off and kept under 24-hour police guard amid arson threats.

CLEVELAND — Admitted rapist and kidnapper Ariel Castro told a Cleveland court that he wasn’t trying to make excuses for his depraved actions, but that he’s “not a monster.”

“I’m sick,” he told a disbelieving court in a long, rambling statement.

Shortly afterwards, he was sentenced to life without parole, plus 1,000 years and forbidden to see his daughter after being found guilty of holding three women captive in his Cleveland house for over a decade and raping them repeatedly.

“I’m not a violent person, I simply kept them there without allowing them to leave,” Castro told the court Thursday afternoon during his sentencing hearing.

“These people are trying to paint me as a monster,” he said. “I’m not a monster. I’m sick.”

He also claimed the women lived a happy life with him. “We had a lot of harmony that went on in that home,” he said.

Castro said he is addicted to pornography. He says he didn’t even plan the first kidnapping.

He says he knows what he did was wrong, but that he’s not a violent person and that his captives asked for sex and weren’t tortured.

“I just want to apologize to everyone who was touched by these events,” he said. But he also asked people to “do some research on people who have addictions.”

Michelle Knight stood just feet away from Ariel Castro in a Cleveland courtroom, the first time she’s been seen publicly since her rescue from the house where she was held captive.

“You took 11 years of my life away and I have got it back,” she told Castro. “I spent 11 years in hell. Now your hell is just beginning. I will overcome all this has happened, but you will face hell for eternity.”

AP Photo/Tony DejakMichelle Knight sits in the courtroom during a break in the sentencing phase for Ariel Castro Thursday, Aug. 1, 2013, in Cleveland

Castro spoke during his sentencing hearing Thursday where a judge could order him to serve life in prison plus 1,000 years.

The judge was not buying Castro’s defence of his actions.

“You made a calculated decision to do wrong,” the judge said.

The 53-year-old Castro pleaded guilty last week to 937 counts including two charges of aggravated murder related to one act of forcing one of his victims to miscarry.

Court evidenceDuring the trial, the prosecution presented images from inside the house that reveal the disturbing conditions in which they were held. A model of the house was also included.. Castro forced the women to wear a motorbike helmet while he raped them.

Prosecutors detailed Castro’s assaults and law enforcement witnesses described the jury-rigged prison he built in his ramshackle home. With the possibility of the death penalty for a forced miscarriage taken off the table, Castro stands to get life in prison plus 1,000 years.

Castro wrote “I’m a sexual predator,” in a letter, an FBI agent testified.

Court evidenceAriel Castro's sentencing for the kidnapping and rape of three women in Ohio will be issued Friday, August 1. During the trial, the prosecution presented images from inside the house that reveal the disturbing conditions in which they were held. A model of the house was also included. Stuffed animals lie on a bed in the house.

FBI agent Andrew Burke said Castro turned his house into a prison by creating a makeshift alarm system and chaining them inside bolted bedrooms.

Bedroom windows were boarded shut from the inside with heavy closet doors and doorknobs had been removed and replaced with multiple locks, he said. The house was divided in ways to make it more secure and to hide the existence of rooms, he said.

Prosecutors set-up a dollhouse-like replica of Castro’s house in the courtroom to show how he kept the women trapped for years, and isolated from each other.

Burke also testified that Castro would occasionally pay his victims after raping them. But he then would require them to pay him if they wanted something special from the store.

The letter written by Castro was found in his home and shown in court. It read “Confession and Details” at the top.

Castro, in leg chains and a orange prison jumpsuit, listened to the testimony expressionless.

Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Detective Dave Jacobs said he talked with Castro a few days after the women escaped and that Castro said, “I knew what I did was wrong.”

Early in the hearing, Castro tried to apologize to the victims, but after speaking with the judge said he would do that later in the proceeding.

A police officer who helped rescue the women said one was reluctant to come out of her room even when she saw the officers. They were scared even after they were taken out of the house and quickly began sharing details about the horrors they went through, saying that they had been starved and beaten.

“They were just shouting out a lot of things,” said Cleveland police officer Barb Johnson. She described the women as thin, pale and scared.

AP Photo/Tony DejakAriel Castro rubs his nose in the courtroom during the sentencing phase Thursday, Aug. 1, 2013, in Cleveland.

Responding to questions from prosecutors, Cleveland police detective Andrew Harasimchuk said that the women all described a pattern of being physically, sexually and emotionally assaulted for years. He said all three women were abducted after Castro offered them a ride and that each was chained in his basement and sexually assaulted within a few hours of being kidnapped.

Cuyahoga County prosecutor Tim McGinty said in a sentencing memorandum filed Wednesday that Castro, who fed his captives only one meal a day, “admits his disgusting and inhuman conduct” but “remains remorseless for his actions.”

The memorandum described a diary kept by one of the women.

“The entries speak of forced sexual conduct, of being locked in a dark room, of anticipating the next session of abuse, of the dreams of someday escaping and being reunited with family, of being chained to a wall, of being held like a prisoner of war … of being treated like an animal,” it says.

“After her mom died, she “wrote to her mother in heaven, seeking to soothe her mother” and praying for deliverance and the health of her daughter who Castro fathered,” the newspaper writes.

The memorandum says the three women continued to observe holidays and events from inside captivity, if though they were “removed from the outside world.”

The sentencing could take up to four hours, court officials said, with Castro, his attorneys, his victims and prosecution witnesses getting a chance to speak. The legal team representing the women’s interests declined to comment on whether they would testify or send statements to the court.

HandoutThis frame grab combo from a July 2, 2013 video courtesy of Hennes Paynter Communications shows (right to left) Amanda Berry, Michelle Knight and Gina de Jesus as they speak at the law offices of Jones Day in Cleveland, Ohio.

Prosecutors used a model of the house where Castro, 53, imprisoned the women to present their case. They also showed photos taken from inside the disheveled home.

The women quickly escaped after Amanda Berry kicked out the door panel on May 6 and Castro was arrested within hours. The women disappeared separately between 2002 and 2004, when they were 14, 16 and 20 years old.

Some horrific details of the women’s ordeal had already emerged, including tales of being chained to poles in the basement or a bedroom heater or inside a van, with one woman forced to wear a motorcycle helmet while chained in the basement and, after she tried to escape, having a vacuum cord wrapped around her neck.

Castro repeatedly starved and beat one of the victims each time she was pregnant, forcing her to miscarry five times.

He forced the same woman on threat of death to safely deliver the child he fathered with another victim on Christmas Day 2006. The same day, prosecutors say, Castro raped the woman who helped deliver his daughter.

As part of his plea deal, Castro was to receive a sentence of life with no chance of parole for aggravated murder in the forced miscarriage. He would then receive 1,000 years for the kidnapping, rape, assault and other charges.

Court evidenceDuring the trial, the prosecution presented images from inside the house that reveal the disturbing conditions in which they were held. A model of the house was also included.

Berry, 27, made a surprise onstage appearance at a rap concert last weekend, and a second victim, Gina DeJesus, 23, has made a few televised comments. Knight, 32, appeared with Berry and DeJesus in a video in early July thanking the community for its support.

Knight, the first of three to disappear, also sent police a handwritten letter thanking them for their help collecting cards and gifts for the women. In the note, Knight told Second District Cmdr. Keith Sulzer, “Life is tough, but I’m tougher!”

CLEVELAND — Prosecutors may seek the death penalty against Ariel Castro, the man accused of imprisoning three women at his home for a decade, as police charged that he impregnated one of his captives at least five times and made her miscarry by starving her and punching her in the belly.

The allegations were contained in a police report that also said another one of the women, Amanda Berry, was forced to give birth in a plastic kiddie pool.

Prosecutor Timothy McGinty said Thursday his office will decide whether to bring aggravated murder charges punishable by death in connection with the pregnancies that were terminated by force.

“Capital punishment must be reserved for those crimes that are truly the worst examples of human conduct,” he said. “The reality is we still have brutal criminals in our midst who have no respect for the rule of law or human life.”

Castro, a 52-year-old former school bus driver, is being held on $8 million bail under a suicide watch in jail, where he is charged with rape and kidnapping.

McGinty said Castro will be charged for every act of sexual violence, assault and other crimes committed against the women, suggesting the counts could number in the hundreds, if not thousands.

Among the chilling details in the police report:

— Berry, now 27, told officers that she was forced to give birth in a plastic pool in the house so it would be easier to clean up. Berry said she, her baby, now 6, and the two other rescued women had never been to a doctor during their captivity.

— Michelle Knight, now 32, said her five pregnancies ended after Castro starved her for at least two weeks and “repeatedly punched her in the stomach until she miscarried.” She also said Castro forced her to deliver Berry’s baby under threat of death if the baby died. Knight said that when the newborn stopped breathing, she revived her through mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

— All three women said Castro chained them up in the basement but eventually let them live on the home’s second floor. Each woman told a similar story about being abducted after accepting a ride from Castro.

During his brief arraignment Thursday, Castro tried to hide his face, tucking his chin inside his shirt collar. He appeared to close his eyes during the hearing and awkwardly signed documents while handcuffed. He did not speak or enter a plea.

In court, prosecutor Brian Murphy said Castro used the women “in whatever self-gratifying, self-serving way he saw fit.”

Kathleen DeMetz, a public defender assigned to represent him at the hearing, didn’t comment on his guilt or innocence or object when prosecutors recommended bail be set at $5 million. The judge, instead, ordered Castro held on $8 million.

Emmanuel Dunand / AFP / Getty Images Children release balloons as part of a gathering outside a community meeting at Immanuel Lutheran Church held to talk about the kidnapping of Michelle Knight, Gina DeJesus and Amanda Berry by Ariel Castro, in Cleveland, May 9, 2013 in Cleveland, Ohio.

Castro was arrested Monday, when Berry broke out of his run-down house and called police while he was away. Police found the two other women inside. The women had vanished separately between 2002 and 2004, when they 14, 16 and 20.

Berry and former captive Gina DeJesus, 22, went home with relatives on Wednesday. Knight was reported in good condition at a Cleveland hospital.

The police report gave a detailed account of their escape, beginning with Berry’s discovery that a door was unlocked, leaving only a bolted outer door between her and freedom.

Berry feared it was a test: She said Castro occasionally left a door unlocked to test them. But she called to neighbours on a porch for help and was able to get out.

Police then entered the house and found the other women, who threw themselves into the officers’ arms.

Castro’s two brothers, who were arrested with him but later cleared of involvement in the case, appeared in court on unrelated charges Thursday and were released.

Years before the women’s abductions and abuse, Castro terrorized the mother of his children, beating her and locking her indoors, her relatives said in interviews Thursday with The Associated Press.

Relatives of Grimilda Figueroa, who left Castro many years ago and died after a long illness last year, described Castro as a “monster.” He once shoved her into a cardboard box and closed the flaps over her head, said Elida Caraballo, her sister.

“He told her, ’You stay there until I tell you to get out,”’ Caraballo said.

Monica Stephens, Castro’s former daughter-in-law, who now lives in Florida, met Castro’s son in 2002. They married in 2004 but split up in 2006. Stephens on Thursday recalled conversations with her ex-husband in which he said he and his mother were beaten by Castro.

“They were like hostages in their own house,” she said.

Relatives say that in 1996, Figueroa finally left Castro after he hit her for the last time. After one particularly bad beating, Figueroa ran outside with one of her sons, crying out to neighbours just as the captive women did.

“The neighbours went across the street to get her,” Elida Caraballo said. “And that was the last time she ever stepped in the house.”

Some relatives of Castro have said they were shocked by the allegations against him. An uncle, Julio Castro, said it’s been difficult news to absorb.

“Of course we have taken it hard,” he said. “We only knew one Ariel, my sweet nephew. He was a sweet, happy person, a musician. We didn’t have the slightest idea of the second person in him.”

Juan Perez, who lives two doors down from Castro, said Castro was always happy and respectful. “He gained trust with the kids and with the parents. You can only do that if you’re nice,” Perez said.

A musician who often practiced at Castro’s house said he was there last week and heard noises “like banging on the wall.” Ricky Sanchez said he asked Castro about it and Castro blamed it on dogs. He also said Castro, a bass guitarist in merengue and salsa bands, liked to play his music loud.

On his most recent visit, Sanchez said, a little girl came out from the kitchen and stared at him but didn’t say anything. He said he also noticed there were four or five locks on the outside door.

“When I was about to leave, I tried to open the door. I couldn’t even, because there were so many locks in there,” he said.

Dozens of area residents gathered Thursday night at a church half a block from the house where the women were found. They received briefings on ways to help the women and applauded the police for their handling of their disappearances.

Three women who went missing separately about a decade ago were found Monday in a Cleveland home just south of downtown and likely had been tied up during years of captivity, said police, who arrested three brothers. One of the women said she had been abducted and told a 911 dispatcher in a frantic call, “I’m free now.”

Crowds gathered Monday night on the street near the home where the city’s police chief said he thought Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight had been held since they went missing when they were in their teens or early 20s.

The women appeared to be in good health and were taken to a hospital to be evaluated and to reunite with relatives. Police said a 6-year-old also was found in the home, but the child’s identity or relationship to anyone in the home wasn’t revealed.

A neighbor, Charles Ramsey, told WEWS-TV he heard screaming Monday and saw Berry, whom he didn’t recognize, at a door that would open only enough to fit a hand through. He said she was trying desperately to get outside and pleaded for help to reach police.

I’m Amanda Berry. I’ve been on the news for the last 10 years

“I heard screaming,” he said. “I’m eating my McDonald’s. I come outside. I see this girl going nuts trying to get out of a house.”

On a recorded 911 call Monday, Berry declared, “I’m Amanda Berry. I’ve been on the news for the last 10 years.”

She said she had been taken by someone and begged for police officers to arrive at the home on Cleveland’s west side before he returned.

“I’ve been kidnapped, and I’ve been missing for 10 years,” she told the dispatcher. “And I’m here. I’m free now.”

Berry disappeared at age 16 on April 21, 2003, when she called her sister to say she was getting a ride home from her job at a Burger King. DeJesus went missing at age 14 on her way home from school about a year later. They were found just a few miles from where they had gone missing.

Police said Knight went missing in 2002 and is 32 now. They didn’t provide current ages for Berry or DeJesus.

Police said one of the brothers, a 52-year-old, lived at the home, and the others, ages 50 and 54, lived elsewhere. Authorities released no names and gave no details about them or what charges they might face.

Ramsey, the neighbor, said he’d barbecued with the home’s owner and never suspected something was amiss.

“There was nothing exciting about him – well, until today,” he said.

Julio Castro, who runs a grocery store half a block from where the women were found, said the homeowner arrested is his nephew, Ariel Castro.

Berry also identified Ariel Castro by name in her 911 call.

The Plain Dealer, Scott Shaw / APNeighbor Charles Ramsey speaks to media near the home on the 2200 block of Seymour Avenue, where three missing women were rescued in Cleveland, on Monday, May 6, 2013.

Attempts to reach Ariel Castro in jail were unsuccessful Monday. Messages to the sheriff’s office and a jail spokesman went unanswered, and there was no public phone listing for the home, which was being searched by dozens of police officers and sheriff’s deputies.

The uncle said Ariel Castro had worked as a school bus driver. The Cleveland school district confirmed he was a former employee but wouldn’t release details.

The women’s loved ones said they hadn’t given up hope of seeing them again.

A childhood friend of DeJesus, Kayla Rogers, said she couldn’t wait to hug her.

The Plain Dealer, Gus Chan / APTasheena Mitchell, cousin of Amanda Berry celebrates outside of MetroHealth Medical Center after Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michele Knight were found in a house on Seymour Avenue in Cleveland, Monday, May 6, 2013.

Berry’s cousin Tasheena Mitchell told the newspaper she couldn’t wait to have Berry in her arms.

“I’m going to hold her, and I’m going to squeeze her and I probably won’t let her go,” she said.

Berry’s mother, Louwana Miller, who had been hospitalized for months with pancreatitis and other ailments, died in March 2006. She had spent the previous three years looking for her daughter, whose disappearance took a toll as her health steadily deteriorated, family and friends said.

Councilwoman Dona Brady said she had spent many hours with Miller, who never gave up hope that her daughter was alive.

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Mayor Frank Jackson expressed gratitude that the three women were found alive. He said there are many unanswered questions in the ongoing investigation.

At Metro Health Medical Center, Dr. Gerald Maloney wouldn’t discuss the women’s conditions in detail but said they were being evaluated by appropriate specialists.

“This is really good, because this isn’t the ending we usually hear in these stories,” he said. “So, we’re very happy.”

In January, a prison inmate was sentenced to 4 1/2 years after admitting he provided a false burial tip in the disappearance of Berry. A judge in Cleveland sentenced Robert Wolford on his guilty plea to obstruction of justice, making a false report and making a false alarm.

Last summer, Wolford tipped authorities to look for Berry’s remains in a Cleveland lot. He was taken to the location, which was dug up with backhoes.

AFP PHOTO / WOIO This image obtained May 7, 2013 courtesy of WOIO TV shows Amanda Berry (C) reunited with her sister (L) on May 6, 2013 in Cleveland, Ohio after Berry and two other women who had been missing for a decade were found alive in a house not far from where they were last seen.

Two men arrested for questioning in the disappearance of DeJesus in 2004 were released from the city jail in 2006 after officers didn’t find her body during a search of the men’s house.

One of the men was transferred to the Cuyahoga County Jail on unrelated charges, while the other was allowed to go free, police said.

In September 2006, police acting on a tip tore up the concrete floor of the garage and used a cadaver dog to search unsuccessfully for DeJesus’ body. Investigators confiscated 19 pieces of evidence during their search but declined to comment on the significance of the items then.

No Amber Alert was issued the day DeJesus failed to return home from school in April 2004 because no one witnessed her abduction. The lack of an Amber Alert angered her father, Felix DeJesus, who said in 2006 he believed the public will listen even if the alerts become routine.

“The Amber Alert should work for any missing child,” Felix DeJesus said then. “It doesn’t have to be an abduction. Whether it’s an abduction or a runaway, a child needs to be found. We need to change this law.”

Cleveland police said then that the alerts must be reserved for cases in which danger is imminent and the public can be of help in locating the suspect and child.

They may not be the first places that come to mind when planning a weekend getaway to the U.S. — that honour has long gone to the iconic metropolises such as New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, and with good reason — but the nation’s abundant off-the-beaten-path cities are increasingly turning up on must-see lists, also with good reason. Here, Robert Reid, U.S. travel editor for Lonely Planet, offers five places to start for those looking to explore the little guys.

Denver
“Many see it just as a gateway to the mountains, but the historic mining city has shown a lot of stick in recent years, particularly around the historic buildings turned shops, microbreweries and restaurants around LoDo — Lower Denver. This was largely part of the old skid row area that Jack Kerouac and Neal Cassady bummed around in On the Road, finally a movie this year. Go old school by seeing jazz in El Chapultepec, one of the country’s great jazz secrets and stay in the Brown Palace, one of the country’s finest historic boutique hotels.”

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Cleveland
“I love Cleveland. It’s such a surprise. It’s got the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for a reason. The term ‘rock ’n’ roll’ originated in this misunderstood, proud and plain-fun Rust Belt city. The museum is wonderful — who knew Jimi Hendrix did drawings of college football players? A fun place for breakfast is the century-old West Side Market in Ohio City across the Cuyahoga River from downtown, which caught fire from its polluted waters in 1969. The river has changed too, as life has returned along with kayaks, which offer a unique view of downtown. Apparently Cleveland has more live music venues than Austin, Tex., and the best is Beachland, in east Cleveland, a transformed
Croatian social hall that launched careers of bands such as the White Stripes.”

Philadelphia
“It’s amazing how many people miss out on Philly, which is more than a cheesesteak or the spirit of 1776. A few months ago the Barnes Foundation, one of the country’s most impressive art collections, moved from the suburbs to Benjamin Franklin Parkway — and reserved tickets were tough to get for months. The Eastern State Penitentiary here, a former prison built look like a castle and intimidate its inmates, offers one of the most fascinating tours in the east. Hipsters tend to converge on Fish Town, where there are retro video game bars and beer halls.”

Baltimore
“Canadians always remember the War of 1812 more than Americans, and now that we’re commemorating its 200th, it could be interesting for Canadians to go to the USA’s best-known War of 1812 site in Baltimore. The historic port town between DC and Philadelphia is fun to see. Water taxis connect historic downtown and Fells Point, and out to Fort McHenry, a star-shaped fort that held off a British attack in 1814 inspiring a little poem came to be known as the ‘Star Spangled Banner.’ ”

Oklahoma City
“It’s flat, spread out and, at times, pretty ugly, but Oklahoma City can be a lot of fun. Since the bombing in the 1990s, the city’s adopted a sales tax to overhaul a place that’s sometimes been smeared for its lack of physical charms. Downtown now has two historic hotels (the Colcord is the better); an art deco local for its once-remote art museum that hosts roof wine parties; a recently relocated (and beloved) NBA team plays here, and the rejuvenated Bricktown has baseball, canal rides and a Flaming Lips Alley to honour the local indie-rock heroes. My favourite is getting a bowl of pho around 23rd and Classen Avenue, a couple miles north. It’s surprisingly real-deal Vietnamese in the heart of the city, with a banh mi shop made from a tiny milk-bottle stop from the old Route 66.”